Black Jack Gum

by Adams

1884 – 1978 IT CAME BACK

Back — Warner-Lambert halted production in 1978, revived Black Jack (alongside Beemans and Clove) in the mid-1980s, and the trio drifted in and out of production under Cadbury and Mondelez until candy importer Gerrit J. Verburg bought all three in 2018 and relaunched them in 2019. It is now made in Morocco and sold through specialty candy shops and online rather than the checkout lane.

Licorice-flavored chewing gum in a stick, on sale since 1884 and chewed by roughly four generations of grandfathers before anyone under thirty got a taste. It turned your tongue black, which was at least half the point.

🧾 One more thingThe chicle came to Thomas Adams by way of Antonio López de Santa Anna, the exiled Mexican general, who was trying to sell it as a rubber substitute; when that failed, Adams flavored it and sold what is generally counted as America's first flavored gum, and the first gum in sticks. The 1978 discontinuation lasted only until a mid-1980s nostalgia campaign put it back on the counter.

Filed under: Candy & Gum · the ’70s & earlier

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